I'm going through the process of ripping my music collection in ALAC and I'm having a hard time finding a right way to tag classical files. I'm quite anal about tagging my music and keeping it clean, but with classical music, it seems like there's no proper way. How do you manage your collection?

great topic, and I look forward to other responses, because my answer is I have no idea. I find I mostly don't rip my classical and just listen to the CD. \

So far I'm using Composer - Song name - Performer (eg. Liszt - R

I just tag them all with the name of the piece, no subdivisions

A lot depends on your output display. For instance the Squeezebox displays Artist and Album Artist so that can be used, or you may want to avoid.

One suggestion if you're on OS X, is to use Doug's Applescripts to swap tag info around, delete, add, etc. I sometimes move artist info behind song title if I want to reference it, but want the artist tag for composer, 'various artists', etc.

A good place to start is here

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Beginners_Guide_To_Classical

Good summary, try searching for classical in

http://forums.slimdevices.com/

for more discussion.

The thing that annoys me the most is that I have a lot of CDs with multiple works on them by different composers and/or conductors and I'm not sure how to deal with that. I could choose to list these CDs as full albums like my rock and jazz CDs, but that means I won't be able to browse by composer. I could also list all the different works on the CDs as single works, but I would loose the "album" concept. Either way, I have to make a compromise.

The thing that annoys me the most is that I have a lot of CDs with multiple works on them by different composers and/or conductors and I'm not sure how to deal with that. I could choose to list these CDs as full albums like my rock and jazz CDs, but that means I won't be able to browse by composer. I could also list all the different works on the CDs as single works, but I would loose the "album" concept. Either way, I have to make a compromise.

Since you mentioned ALAC, I'm assuming you're using iTunes to play or at least organize your files? Keep in mind you have Artist, Album Artist, Composer, Grouping and the Comment field to work with. They just aren't all showing by default. You could use Album Artist to keep your album concept (why it was created), and still use Artist or Composer for Composer or Conductor. Then use the other (or Grouping or Comment) for the other. Sort or find as necessary. Keep in mind if you have an iPod all fields may not be usable to sort there. The above mentioned Applescripts can be used to reshuffle everything to keep it consistant.

I try to fit everything I can into the tags, and toss an info.txt file with anything else in the album folder.

I think I finally found a layout that makes sense on both iTunes and my iPod:

The only thing I don't like is that it separates the two works with a line no matter what I do, so there's no way to list them as a single album.

FLAC with Foobar allows so many options. This is what I use as an example:

PERFORMER = G

FLAC with Foobar allows so many options.

Foobar is one of the very few programs from Windows that I miss. iTunes looks like a program for retarded kids compared to it.

The main problem with iTunes is that it is very slow and not as responsive as it ought to be. On the upside, it is visually pleasing and a doddle to use.

I tag using iTunes and Foobar just reads them. For some reason, my Foobar can't quite read the 'Composer'. It works the other way round if I tag with Foobar...

Here's my foobar:

And my iTunes: